J'ACCUSE

In the late 19^th Century the Dreyfus scandal wrenched France as that nation confronted the unspoken codes of anti-Semitism and internal military refusal to expose the extent that France’s enemies had infiltrated the nation’s security and defense institutions. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, was the scapegoat. He spent years in the hell that was Devil’s Island. What brought France to its senses was an editorial by Emile Zola entitled J’Accuse (I Accuse) that detailed the self-serving conspiracy of insiders and the well connected to maintain their power at the expense of the nation.

Last week evidence of an equally pervasive corruption erupted on our television screens as we watched in horror the accounts of a murderous rampage of a Muslim fanatic who gunned down selfless, decent Americans serving us, you and me, with the most precious commodity of all – time out of their lives - to protect and defend us. These people, some barely out of high school and others farther along in life, deserved to feel secure and safe at their home base at Fort Hood.

Like the Dreyfus scandal, our scandal did not start last week or last year. It has grown insidiously and silently for decades and it is intertwined with policies and interest groups and judicial decisions and it threatens our national existence just as surely as any enemy we have faced in our history. The author does not pretend to be Emile Zola. That would be hubris. But, with deference to and with respect for Zola, let us continue.

I accuse the Carter administration and both Houses of Congress of equivocating the state of Israel with Yassir Arafat thereby bestowing respectability on a murderer and terrorist. I accuse the same administration of unleashing Islamic fundamentalism on the world by undermining and deserting the Shah of Iran. I accuse the Carter Administration and both Houses of Congress of negligence and incompetence for gutting our military so much we had to endure the humiliations of Americans held hostage and the pain of a rescue mission scuttled by unreliable equipment. Carter's negligence gave a foothold to the maniacs who would fund Hamas. And I accuse the Carter administration of starting the charade of a road map to peace in the Middle East. Finally, I accuse the Carter administration and both Houses of Congress of caving to environmental extremists, thus cementing our national dependence on Islamic oil.

I accuse the Reagan administration and both Houses of Congress during the Reagan administration of showing weakness and cowardice by retreating after almost three hundred Marines died in their barracks at the hands of the murderers and terrorists craving the same influence and status as Arafat. I accuse the Reagan administration and both Houses of Congress of unleashing hell upon Lebanon through their cowardice thereby securing a power base for Hezbollah and its Syrian patrons.

I accuse the George H W Bush administration and both Houses of Congress of refusing to finish Saddam Hussein when they had the chance, but listened to the discredited and self-serving advice of Colin Powell who worried that murderers might think of the United States as a bully if we destroyed Saddam.

I accuse the Clinton administration and both Houses of Congress of pursuing self-interest, deviance and corruption so assiduously that we watched more Americans die at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists in the Khobar Towers bombing, the bombings of our embassies and the sinking of the USS Cole. I accuse the Clinton administration and both Houses of Congress of being so focused on maintaining their positions of power and control that they refused an opportunity to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden. I accuse the Clinton administration and both Houses of Congress of such self-absorption with sexual affairs and photo-ops that they ignored the implications of the first attempt to destroy the World Trade Center and set the stage for the murders of thousands of innocent Americans on September 11^th , 2001.

I accuse the George W Bush administration and both Houses of Congress of incompetence by refusing to identify our enemy by name – Islamic fundamentalism – and engaging in the self delusion that Islam is a religion of peace when it is not. I especially accuse the mediocrities in both Houses of Congress of becoming so wrapped up in the 2000 election that they refused to fight our real enemy but, instead, fought each other and the interests of the American people.

I accuse the Obama administration and both Houses of Congress of serial psychological denial that we are under attack by a crazed and committed enemy – Islamic fundamentalism – by injecting “man made disasters” into our national vocabulary with a straight face. I accuse the Obama administration and both Houses of Congress for refusing to recognize evil as evil because doing so is inconvenient for a self-proclaimed "citizen of the world".

Finally, I accuse us, you and me, of being asleep at the switch. We have allowed the notions of political correctness permeate our national psyche so much that we can hear the details of the Fort Hood shooter, his history and his pre-slaughter behavior and still listen to the President say we should not “jump to conclusions” without erupting into laughter at such an intentionally misleading statement.

I accuse us, you and me, of negligence because we allow an idiot like Dr. Phil, to pontificate about post traumatic stress syndrome. We might as well listen to Big Bird with the same respect. We know what Fort Hood was. It was a well planned and deliberate attack by an Islamic fundamentalist and terrorist who should have been weeded out of the United States Army years ago for incompetence if not as a security threat.

I accuse us, you and me, of allowing that same political correctness permeate the Army. No doubt there were people in the chain of command who knew what a nut job Hasan was but who were afraid to risk the wrath of politically compromised superiors or politicians if they blew the whistle.

The Dreyfus scandal so devastated the French political and military institutions that they never recovered and experienced humiliating defeats in two wars. Will our scandal lead us to similar defeats? Yes, if you and I allow it!